Commentary on Romans 5:1-5

Sze-kar Wan

Romans 5:1–11 is a transitional passage from the fatherhood of Abraham (4:1–25), which we share with the Jewish people, to the progenitor Adam, whom we share with all humanity (5:12–21). The mention of boasting in our tribulations (thlipseis, verse 3) is surprising at first glance in an upbeat passage that first touts having peace with God and gaining access to God’s grace (verses 1–2; more on this below), until we realize that the chain of development from tribulation to patience to character to hope (verses 3–5) lets Paul tie boasting to hope, the leading idea of this passage (5:2).

“Tribulation” is a common term in apocalypticism used to describe the darkest hours before dawn. The reference to God’s wrath (orgē) from which we shall be rescued (verse 9) likewise evokes the end time. In so doing, Paul sets up an apocalyptic context for the ensuing chapters leading to the new creation of chapter 8.

Paul speaks confidently of “boasting” (verse 3), even though previously he had panned boasting as unworthy (2:17, 23; also 11:18). But he uses the term paradoxically: He boasts in his tribulations. Who would take pride in their own sufferings? And why? His words in the following verses try to clarify the conundrum: Suffering would lead to patience, patience to a test of character, and character would finally engender hope.

Since this hope looks forward to the end, this means the new creation is already started and hope gives us an eager expectation that it will culminate in a perfect conclusion. This hope does not put us to shame (verse 5)—which the New Revised Standard Version misleadingly translates as “disappoint.” This hope provides grounds for boasting—boasting in the impending glory of God (verse 2).

We can demonstrate from our experience that this hope is not some pie in the sky but represents present reality. We have been justified, we have peace with God, and we have access into the divine chamber in which we stand (verses 1–2).

If we give full weight to the tenses of the verbs used here, they describe our present prerogatives in light of past, accomplished acts. Most importantly, we have reason to be optimistic “because the love of God has come to be poured out [ekkechytai] in our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (verse 5). The verb I translate as “has come to be poured out” is used in the perfect tense, referring to actions taking place in the past with results that are valid still. The love of God was given as an accomplished act, but it remains in our hearts as a present reality.

Love here makes an entrance in Romans, but it is in fact the narrative arc leading to the triumphal declaration that nothing can separate us from the love of God (8:28–39). To unpack what Paul means by the love of God, though, we need to see how he defines love in the next passage. The death language and bloody images in 5:6–10 might cause many discomfort; maybe that’s why the Revised Common Lectionary omits it from today’s reading. To do so, however, would deprive us of Paul’s central statement on love.

Paul first recites a piece of early confession describing Jesus dying for us while we were weak or while we were sinners (5:6–8). The confession consists of four poetic lines all ending with the same verb “to die” (apothnēskein). Paul breaks this pattern by interjecting, “God gathers his love into us” (verse 8; New Revised Standard Version “God proves his love for us”). This is obviously of a piece with his statement that God’s love “has been poured out in our hearts” (verse 5). Christ’s death for the weak and the sinful manifests God’s love, to be sure, but Paul goes beyond his predecessors. He ascribes the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to God’s gathering his love into us. We have become the storehouse of God’s love for humanity because the Spirit resides in us.

God’s love is not limited to the personal realm; it extends to the communal and political. Paul was the first to formulate the idea of salvation as reconciliation. Behind it stands the breaking and perfecting of new creation, a theme he will explore later. It refers to the cessation of the eternal enmity between God and humanity ever since the fall, so that the original creation could attain its full potential. What is remarkable about Paul’s conception of reconciliation, however, is that God takes the initiative, reaching across enemy lines to former adversaries. God does so by forgoing rightful claims through the martyrdom of one man, all for the purpose of achieving peace.

At this point, Paul’s use of theo-political language in the first two verses of our passage becomes apparent. The term “access” (prosagōgē, verse 2) and its cognates were commonly used in the Roman imperial cult for approach to Caesar. Likewise, the notion that “grace” is a space in which one stands (verse 2) finds no parallel in Paul, who otherwise takes grace to be an extension of God’s power into the human realm. In the imperial cult, grace was used as a stand-in for the emperor’s presence (verse 2).

“Peace” (verse 1), naturally, recalls the famous or infamous pax romana, Caesar’s motto for achieving peace through military conquest. The letter was intended for an audience living in the heart of the imperial seat. Elsewhere Paul condemns pax romana in 1 Thessalonians 5:3, where he consigns those who cry “peace and security” (Latin pax et securitas) to destruction at the coming of the Son.

Paul mimics the theo-political language of the Caesar-religion to subvert it. Unlike pax romana, the peace that God offers is achieved not by military conquest, not by patronage, power, or prestige, but by its very opposite, the death of Christ—for the sake of God reestablishing solidarity with the enemy. In so doing, “Paul declares an end to the deadly cycle of power, privilege, law, justice, and violence”¹ that constituted the core of our civic and political life.